Ancient Aliens (2009–…): Season 14, Episode 7 - The Druid Connection - full transcript

NARRATOR: Mysterious stone
structures that defy explanation.

Look at that.

NARRATOR: Exhibiting
electromagnetic anomalies...

- And you can see it's fluctuating. See it there?
- Yeah, right.

NARRATOR:
That have even been linked

to UFO sightings.

Thousands of people
would witness

these massive
triangular spacecraft

congregate towards where
these chambers are.

NARRATOR: And perhaps
most incredible of all,

these ancient sites are located



in the Northeastern
United States.

WILLIAM HENRY: These mysterious
stone structures are in fact

Druid structures.

NARRATOR: Could an
extraterrestrial culture

have existed in North America
centuries ago?

BILL BIRNES: People were
not only seeing UFOs,

they were seeing creatures, they
were experiencing missing time.

WHITLEY STRIEBER: I have experienced
it directly for years now.

It's an extraordinary place
of power.

NARRATOR:
There is a doorway

in the universe.

Beyond it is
the promise of truth.

It demands
we question everything

we have ever been taught.



The evidence is all around us.

The future is
right before our eyes.

We are not alone.

We have never been alone.

NARRATOR:
New York's Hudson Valley.

December 26, 1985.

Author Whitley Strieber has
an experience that becomes

the basis of his blockbuster
book Communion.

STRIEBER: My wife and
I had bought a cabin.

And in October of 1985,
strange experiences

began to happen there
that were memorable

but not understandable.

And then, on December the 26th,

I felt myself in motion...

and woke up in the middle
of the night.

And the room was filled
with these willowy figures

with big black eyes,
and dark blue,

short figures moving around.

I assumed it was a nightmare,
and I kept trying

to wake up from the dream,
and I couldn't.

Then I began to hear a voice
repeating, a very gentle voice.

But it was like
a mechanical voice:

"What can we do to help you
stop screaming?"

And I thought, "I'm screaming?"
And I was screaming.

That was the beginning of it,

and that's when the rest
of my life began.

ANDREW COLLINS: And to this
day, he still doesn't know

exactly who they were,
where they came from.

Were they aliens?

Were they inter-dimensional
visitors?

He cannot say.

NARRATOR:
Unbeknownst to him at the time,

Strieber's abduction was
actually witnessed

by a neighbor.

STRIEBER:
After I published Communion,

one neighbor shamefully admitted

that he had seen
what happened to me that night.

He and his wife had been
driving home from a party

at about 2:00 in the morning,

and they had seen what they
thought was the Goodyear Blimp

landed in a field
near our houses.

And suddenly, lights came on
all over it.

He heard someone
screaming inside.

His wife panicked,
and he drove away.

And a year later, he said to me,
"Whitley, I'm so ashamed

"to tell you,
I know it was you in there.

It was a man screaming.
It had to have been you."

NARRATOR: Communion became
a massive best seller,

and ignited a cultural shift
in people's attitudes

towards the subject
of alien abduction.

STRIEBER:
When I published it,

I thought there were,
like, maybe

30 or 40 people
who had had the experience,

not millions.

But it was millions.

NARRATOR:
But for UFO researchers

and ancient astronaut
theorists alike,

of particular significance
is where

Strieber's encounter occurred.

The Hudson Valley
stretches northward

150 miles, from New York City
up to Albany.

STRIEBER: This occurred
right at the western border

of the Hudson Valley.

The area is full of
this type of thing.

And after I published Communion,

people from the neighborhood
would come forward,

one after another,
to tell me their own stories.

NARRATOR:
Kent, New York.

New Year's Eve, 1982.

(party horns blowing)

Just a few miles
from the Hudson River,

New Year's Eve revelers spot
a gigantic V-shaped craft

throbbing with red,
white and green lights.

As they watch in amazement,
the colors vanish,

replaced by white lights
so bright

they illuminate the ground.

Over the next months,
authorities are bombarded

with hundreds
of similar reports.

PHILIP IMBROGNO: Usually, UFOs just
appear to a small number of people,

and they disappear.

In this case, people were
stopped on the highways.

People were running out
of their houses watching

this enormous object pass over,
the size of a football field.

BIRNES: They were so large that
people standing between trees

couldn't see the ends
of the flying triangles

'cause they were so big.

That's how large they were.

NARRATOR: The sightings continued
for more than six years,

and became the most
widely reported

in American history.

DAVID CHILDRESS: The Hudson
Valley UFO sightings continued,

well, up to 1988.

It's estimated that
as many as 5,000 people

called in and made reports

of this very large,

lit-up UFO.

HUGH NEWMAN: Other accounts
are of people seeing

these strange balls of light,

which move around in erratic
and unusual ways.

IMBROGNO: UFOs were being
seen all over the place.

Pilots were seeing them,

police officers were
chasing them.

It was like something
out of a movie.

NARRATOR: But why were so
many UFO sightings reported

in this one particular area?

Could there be a connection

to Whitley Strieber's
abduction experience?

The thinking is that
when you have so much

UFO activity in one place,

that place is going
to be significant.

There's something about
that area, it seems,

that is attracting the UFOs.

They want something
in that location.

There is a connection with
something in that location.

Some have suggested
the reason why

these sightings have happened
at the Hudson Valley

is because they are
on top of a vortex.

Now, what's a vortex?

Well, there are varying opinions
of what that is.

Some have suggested that
they are magnetic points

that are part of the Earth's
magnetic grid.

Other's have suggested
that vortexes are

sort of these portals.

COLLINS: What we call
"portals" are locations where

paranormal phenomena
and supernatural events

occur on an extremely
regular basis,

and have done for many decades,

if not hundreds of years.

NARRATOR: Some argue that
New York's Hudson Valley

and the adjoining region
of New England,

America's Northeast,
may be just such a vortex.

STRIEBER: There is definitely
an extraordinary place of power,

the Hudson Valley.

If you want to call it a vortex,
then sure it's a vortex.

I'd have to be completely nuts
to say anything else,

because I experienced it
directly for years there.

NARRATOR: Could Whitley
Strieber's story of Communion,

and the frenzied Hudson Valley
UFO sightings of the 1980s

be just two small parts
of a much larger story?

A story that begins thousands
of years before Columbus,

when ancient visitors
set sail for America,

bringing with them
secrets from the stars.

Perhaps further clues
can be found by examining

the hundreds of strange
stone structures

that dot the area,
and their possible connection

to an ancient people
known as the Druids.

Salem, New Hampshire.

July 9, 1975.

At one of New England's most
popular archaeological sites,

Mystery Hill, also known
as "America's Stonehenge,"

Harvard professor Barry Fell
discovers a stone tablet

with a mysterious script
carved into it.

He identifies it as belonging

to a writing system
called "ogham,"

which was used
by the Irish Celts

who lived 2,000 years ago,
and 3,000 miles away,

in their traditional homeland
of Ireland.

He translates the script
as meaning, "Dedicated to Bel,"

the Celtic sun god.

But why would there be
Celtic writing

carved into an ancient
stone tablet in New Hampshire?

NEWMAN: There is some
evidence that the Celts

were in ancient America.

The megalithic stone chambers.

We have stone circles.

There's stone avenues.

There's also ogham writing
that's been found.

And there's even some dolmens
as well.

And it's all what you find
in ancient Ireland

and ancient Europe.

NARRATOR:
In recent years,

a growing number of people
have come to believe

that the Celts were present
in the American Northeast

thousands of years ago.

And some suggest that
these mysterious Celtic priests

believed that the land possessed
a powerful energy.

Did the Celts travel
to North America

because of its connection
to extraterrestrial activity?

Or, in coming here,
did they open a gateway

that is still open today?

NARRATOR:
Harvard University, 1976.

Professor Barry Fell,
who discovered

what he believed
to be ancient Celtic writing

in New Hampshire
one year earlier,

publishes America B.C.

In it, he argues that long
before Christopher Columbus

reached the shores
of the New World in 1492,

America was visited
by the Druids,

a high-ranking priest class
of the Celtic people

who first arose in
Northern Europe around 800 BC.

As evidence,
Fell points to the prevalence

of strange stone chambers
scattered over

large areas of the
Hudson Valley and New England.

NEWMAN:
All over New England

and New York state,

hundreds of these
unusual stone chambers.

Many of them are thought to be

colonial root cellars,
where local colonialists

would place their vegetables
in for storage.

(leaves rustling)

If they're root cellars,
if they're just for

where the colonialists would
place their vegetables,

then why are they so far out
in the middle of nowhere?

And why were some of them
being reported

by colonial people
as they moved into this area,

even as far back as the 1600s?

STRIEBER: There were stone
structures all over the place.

But they weren't things made
by settlers because

there had never been
any agriculture in those woods.

You can't grow anything there.

SALVATORE TRENTO: Many of
them have stone flooring.

And stone is not the best
material for keeping crops.

The cold seeps through
and destroys the crops.

But there was something else.

We've dated charcoal
that we found within

many of these structures
and they date back

to about 3,000 years ago.

I think that the stone chambers,
which are dismissed

so often as root cellars,

are not root cellars.

I've been in a couple
of those chambers

and that is no root cellar,
believe you me.

NARRATOR:
Professor Fell also noted

that the chambers
accurately line up with

astronomical events like
the solstice and the equinox,

just like ancient Celtic
megaliths in Europe.

Could Professor Fell
have been right?

Were these chambers built by

the ancient Druids
of Northern Europe?

There's been a lot of discussion

over the last century
about if these chambers

are actually part of an ancient
Celtic or Druid tradition

that came over from Europe.

HENRY: They're virtually identical
to the Neolithic structures

we find throughout Europe
that were created

by the Druids for the purpose
of meditation,

as observatories
of stellar phenomena

and perhaps even other
more mysterious purposes.

IMBROGNO:
There are all types of legends

that people from Europe
came here a long time ago

and explored the East Coast
of the United States

from New York, Connecticut,
all the way up

to Vermont and Massachusetts.

And they actually built these
structures with a Druid priest

and they were used
for ceremonial purposes.

NARRATOR:
Did Druids visit America

centuries before Columbus
and build these structures?

And if so, are they connected

to the Hudson Valley sightings
of the 1980s

and even the abduction story
told by Whitley Strieber

in his book, Communion?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

by more closely examining
just who the Druids were

and who they worshipped.

(wind whistling)

Wiltshire, England.

Summer solstice, 500 BC.

As ancient Celts converge
on the megalithic

stone circle known
as Stonehenge,

the Sun's first rays
shine directly into

the center of the monument.

Like the stone chambers
found scattered

throughout
the American Northeast,

Stonehenge is aligned
to this celestial event.

The Celts are led
by their Druid priests

who are believed to communicate
with a higher realm.

RABBI ARIEL BAR TZADOK:
The Druids, history shows us,

the ancient inhabitants in both

the British Isles
and in Ireland.

They were allegedly
an ancient priesthood.

Masters of magic, science.

They were political leaders.
They were judges.

They were essentially the elite.

Who exactly were they?
Where did they come from?

NARRATOR: According to Irish
legend, the Druid priests

were instructed by a race
of godlike beings

who descended from the heavens:

"The Shining Ones"
or Tuatha Dé Danann.

TOK THOMPSON: The Tuatha
Dé Danann are probably

the most important tribe
in Irish mythology.

All the representations
we have that

the Tuatha Dé Danann
were special.

So the "Tuatha" means tribe.

"Dé" means gods or divine,
so, divine tribes.

Gods of the divine.

According to these
ancient Irish books,

the Tuatha Dé Danann
had red hair

and blue or green eyes.

They had magical powers.

And they arrived in airships
with dark clouds.

They had all kinds
of magical devices

and weapons that they used.

The Shining Ones had access
to strange pieces of weaponry.

For example, one of them
is called the light sword.

This sword made out of fire...

(flames roaring)

with which you could end
any battle like this.

It is my opinion that those were

the extraterrestrials
who imparted

the first type of knowledge

to the local population
of that area.

NARRATOR: Are the Celtic
stories of the Tuatha Dé Danann

actual historical accounts

of an alien visitation
in Ireland?

And if so, were these teachers
perhaps also present

in the American Northeast
thousands of years ago?

Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes.

And they suggest
physical evidence

may have been unearthed
on a quiet New England beach.

Milford, Connecticut.

August 19, 1922.

The dean of American archeology,
Warren Moorehead,

makes a shocking discovery
on the Connecticut shore.

His excavations uncover the
remains of two massive giants.

Their discovery sparked
a media sensation.

IMBROGNO:
Warren Moorehead uncovered

two skeletons
of some strange beings

which were over seven feet tall.

They had flat heads
and extra rows of teeth.

NARRATOR:
For ancient astronaut theorists,

an intriguing clue
about the giants' origins

can be found in the
Native American oral tradition,

which says that
the giants had red hair.

COLLINS:
Red hair is something

that is traditionally
associated with

the Celtic peoples of Britain.

So is it possible that there's
a relationship between

the ancient British peoples
and these giants?

NARRATOR:
If Druids came to the New World

and built the stone chambers

scattered throughout
New England,

did they do so with the help
of extraterrestrial visitors?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

by more closely examining

these potentially
ancient structures

and the mysterious properties
they exhibit.

NARRATOR:
North Salem, New York.

April 2019.

Seeking a link between the
Celts, Druids and the New World,

ancient astronaut theorist
David Childress

and British megalith expert
Hugh Newman

set out to visit
one of the most mysterious

stone structures in America:

- Balanced Rock.
- CHILDRESS: I'm excited about

seeing this Balanced Rock.

And you, you think
it's a dolmen.

- Is that what you're saying?
- I'm convinced it's a dolmen.

It looks like something
you would find in Britain.

NARRATOR:
Thousands of ancient dolmens

have been found
throughout Europe.

Most are known to be
at least 5,000 years old,

and since rock
cannot be carbon-dated,

could be far older.

The dolmens were
sometimes open tombs

under which a body would be
ceremonially placed.

COLLINS:
This monument

that is known
as Balanced Rock resembles

almost exactly
the stone dolmens of Europe.

NEWMAN:
It's a massive top stone.

60 to 90 tons are the estimates.

And it's just
a remarkable place.

And so, geologists
are saying that it's...

a glacial erratic
and a-a glacier just brought it.

It's, it's totally natural.

As the glacier pulled out,
it just sort of

dropped them down
on these stones.

That's what they say,
but it just doesn't make sense

'cause it looks like
it's constructed.

You can see the shaping on the,
the stones underneath it.

NARRATOR:
Just a few miles south

of the mass UFO sightings
that happened

in Kent, New York in the 1980s,

David and Hugh arrive
at the mysterious formation.

Wow, look at that.

Oh, man. That is huge.

NEWMAN: That is pretty
impressive, isn't it?

- CHILDRESS: That is a giant dolmen, isn't it?
- I know.

- I know. It's amazing.
- Cool, wow.

It looks like a European dolmen,
doesn't it?

It does, it's identical.
'Cause you have,

we have these uprights; I mean,

there were originally
seven there.

- Uh-huh.
- There seems to be five or six there.

It's hard to tell
because some split.

And the fact that it's granite
is quite intriguing,

combined with
the gneiss rock underneath.

So there is a potential
piezoelectric effect.

And this site is renowned

for having kind of energies
associated with it.

NARRATOR: In the so-called
"piezoelectric effect,"

electrical energy accumulates
in solids, rocks

and otherwise lifeless matter.

Some claim that objects infused
with piezoelectricity

can produce strange
and anomalous results.

Because this is granite,
it's infused

- with tiny quartz crystals.
- Yeah.

So, yeah, there should be
some energy coming out of it.

I believe there is, and also,
the landscape it's in,

it sits right on top
of a negative magnetic anomaly,

directly under
the main part of the stone.

So you think that this is
some kind of vortex area,

and there's a magnetic anomaly,

and that perhaps they used
that magnetic anomaly

to move this giant boulder
a-and place it here?

It's quite possible.
And I think,

if you place them
in the right spot

when there's magnetic anomalies

or telluric currents underneath,
which is both here,

you have
the piezoelectric effect.

So when you place seeds
or grains there,

it'll charge them up,
and you'll get a higher yield

and a better-quality crop.

CHILDRESS: Seeds that
are charged under here

for one or two days,

and then other seeds
that aren't charged,

they grow 'em together,
and the ones from here grow,

like, twice as fast.

NEWMAN: This has been
tested scientifically.

CHILDRESS: So, if there's some
kind of energy vortex here,

- you can measure that, right?
- Yeah.

So, I've got this.

This is a TriField magnetometer.

This is a classic device
where you measure

different readings
from magnetic fluctuations.

Also electric charge.
Even radiation.

Well, should we do some tests?
Shall we see what we can find?

- Yeah, let's do it.
- Yeah, let's go.

Okay, let's turn this on.
So what we'll do is,

we'll get down a bit closer in.

- Uh-huh.
- Let's put this down here, right in the center.

And look, immediately...

We've got it on the magnetic,
uh, setting,

so we're getting
fluctuations already.

CHILDRESS: So that means that
there's an anomalous energy here.

Some magnetic field
that's stronger than outside.

So this energy field is pulsing.

NEWMAN:
This is a proper energy site.

So let's just keep
walking around,

see if we can pick up any other
fluctuations or readings here.

And, yeah, this spot here
seems to be the-the hot spot.

- CHILDRESS: It's stronger now.
- NEWMAN: It's much stronger.

- It's almost double.
- Uh-huh.

NEWMAN: We certainly
have an anomaly here.

NARRATOR: While many rocks
naturally carry a magnetic charge,

the magnetic energy under
and around Balanced Rock

is unusually high...

From ten to 50 times normal.

STRIEBER: The great
structures of the past,

like Balanced Rock,

were about experiencing

the great energy of the Earth.

And, in fact, if you go
to Balanced Rock,

you can feel the power
of the Earth there still,

just as it was then.

NARRATOR:
But is the rock generating

all of this energy on its own?

Or could it have been
purposely placed here

because it is a location
that amplifies

its magnetic properties?

So, you're also thinking,
then, that Druids

or the Tuatha Dé Danann,

they've come here from Ireland
and England and Wales,

and then they chose this area
because it's a vortex spot,

and then they chose this spot
particularly

to put this giant dolmen here?

NEWMAN: I think that's the
case, and I think this is really

the center of the whole complex
around this part of the country.

CHILDRESS: So, back in the '80s,
there was this big UFO flap

here in the Hudson Valley.

And some UFO researchers claim
that the UFOs were

coming up the valley
towards this rock.

NARRATOR: Six years after Harvard
University Professor Barry Fell

published his controversial
theory that the Druids

had visited North America,

the Hudson Valley UFO sightings
began right over

the mysterious stone chambers
and Balanced Rock.

As investigators began tracking
these many thousands

of sightings
in the Hudson Valley,

they began to notice that
there was a focal point.

A central point: Balanced Rock.

Appears to be a sort of a vortex
that was either used as a portal

by these craft,
or as a guidance mechanism

for these craft as they're
travelling through this vortex.

It's no accident that these
masses of sightings took place

in the Hudson Valley.

NEWMAN: Some of the research
that was carried out,

they found that some of
the balls of light

which seem intelligent,
were moving towards these kind

of sites, like the dolmens,
the chambers

of the Hudson Valley here.

NARRATOR: Does the magnetic
testing at Balanced Rock reveal

that this area of the Earth
generates an energy vortex?

And if so, could this anomaly

be connected to both
the high number of UFO sightings

in the Hudson Valley, and also

the mysterious stone structures
found throughout the region?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

by examining an infamous site

where some say time
stands still.

NARRATOR:
Upstate New York.

April 2019.

In search of further evidence

that the ancient Druids
came to America,

David Childress and Hugh Newman
head to a site

just 20 miles north
of Balanced Rock...

One of the mysterious stone
chambers of Putnam County.

There's huge boulders here,
and some walls. Well...

Yeah, there's just
so many of them, really.

I mean, some of them are
probably still buried,

to be discovered.

All right, I see a chamber
right there. Yeah.

NEWMAN: I'm really looking
forward to seeing this one.

CHILDRESS:
All right.

Yeah, this is one of the-the
more famous ones.

When we get inside,
it gets bigger.

So let's get these on.

Let's go in and take a look.

See what we can see.

CHILDRESS:
Yeah, this is a big lintel.

NEWMAN: Yeah, look at this.
This is incredible.

CHILDRESS:
Wow.

NEWMAN:
It's well constructed.

This is one of the chambers
where the strange lights

would kind of congregate
during the whole

- Hudson Valley UFO flap that lasted for ten years.
- Is that right?

And also, we've got massive
megalithic block.

Especially this stone back here.
Look at this.

This is the classic sort of
British megalithic design,

and it proves, I believe,

a connection with the ancient
sites of Britain.

This entrance, what direction
do you think that's pointing?

Well, we can just check that,
actually, while we're here.

If we're standing over
this side,

in that direction,
it's going east.

But if we go over here,
for instance,

and we look in that direction,
that's like northeast.

So we've got summer solstice
alignment going that way,

and if you're standing
over there,

we've got an eastern equinox
alignment.

So, that's kind of intriguing
in itself.

NARRATOR:
Based on Hugh Newman's research,

the chamber lines up
with the solstice and equinox,

like ancient sites all over
the former Celtic territory

of Northern Europe,
such as Stonehenge in England,

the Ring of Brodgar in Scotland,

Newgrange in Ireland,

and the Carnac Stones in France.

Were the Hudson Valley
chambers constructed

by the same ancient builders?

And if so,
how are the chambers connected

to the spectacular UFO sightings

that electrified
the Hudson Valley 30 years ago?

In the whole Hudson Valley
UFO flap in the '80s,

we did have accounts of these
balls of light,

these-these orbs coming down.

They would sort of almost
orientate and kind of land,

go inside the chambers.

And so, why would they do that?

Then it was realized they may
have been designed to trap

magnetic and electric charge,
and it would attract

and move these natural
balls of light around.

NARRATOR: If Druids armed
with alien technology

visited the American Northeast,

could there be other signs
of their passage

through New England?

Hartford, Connecticut.

November 20, 1654.

A settler named John Pynchon
writes Governor John Winthrop

about a newly discovered
stone site known as Gungywamp,

from which he says he is hearing
"many strange reports."

Gungywamp is a series
of stone chambers,

alignments of standing stones
on a 24-acre hilltop

in Southern Connecticut.

And people have been
looking at this

since the early 1600s.

Gungywamp is a place of mystery.

It's a place that has a lot
of anomalies with it.

COLLINS: It's known for
its magnetic anomalies.

It's known for
the strange lights,

the UFOs that appear
in this area.

People have very strange
experiences when they go there.

They burst into tears,
becoming very emotional.

People have reported nosebleeds
out of nowhere.

Bleeding from the eyes.

People have reported
passing out, feeling nauseous.

I was there with a friend of
mine, and we had to sit down

because we got so nauseous
and dizzy.

Some have claimed
extraordinary experiences

where time and space
actually are freezing.

NARRATOR: Interestingly,
Governor John Winthrop,

who recorded the first reference
to Gungywamp,

also recorded the first report
of a UFO sighting

in the New World.

It occurred in 1639,

100 miles east of Gungywamp,

on Boston's Muddy River.

He described an incident
that fishermen had,

where an object flew up
out of the water,

hovered in the sky...

Then, all of a sudden,

these fishermen were back
at the headwaters of this river,

with no sense of passing time.

NARRATOR:
Strange magnetic anomalies.

Unexplainable physical ailments.

Missing time.

UFO sightings.

Could Balanced Rock, Gungywamp,

and the stone chambers be part
of a larger "energy grid"

that overlies vast swaths of the
Hudson Valley and New England?

One that contributes
to the creation of a vortex?

For ancient astronaut theorists,
the answer is a resounding yes,

and they suggest a connection
to the Druids

and their otherworldly mentors,

the Tuatha Dé Danann,

can be found by examining
their darkest practice,

human sacrifice.

NARRATOR:
Mystery Hill, New Hampshire.

At this remarkable
megalithic stone site

known as America's Stonehenge,

where Barry Fell
first discovered evidence

of Druid writing in 1975,

can be found numerous
celestial alignments.

NEWMAN: It's an area
that covers 12 acres.

It has multiple stone chambers.

It has megalithic construction,

such as standing stones,

which have now been found
to be astronomically aligned

from the center of the site.

NARRATOR: The most famous
artifact at Mystery Hill

is a curious stone slab.

COLLINS: Among the many stone
structures at America's Stonehenge

is a huge, flat slab

that is the size
of a human body.

And around its edges
is a channel

that leads into a hole

that very clearly would've been
used to catch liquid

that was running down the stone
and that would eventually go

through the channel
down into the ground.

NARRATOR: A stone slab
the size of a human body?

With a channel
for catching liquid?

Could this slab have been used
for blood rituals?

The stone has, in fact, been
dubbed "The Sacrificial Table,"

and some researchers believe
it was used by the Druids.

Throughout Northern England,

so-called "bog bodies"
have been found,

disturbingly
well-preserved corpses

of 2,000-year-old
human sacrifice victims.

COLLINS: Bog bodies,
as they're described,

are human cadavers

that have been repeatedly found

in boggy environments,

and the manner
of their discovery

seems to suggest that they
could've been cast

into the waters as a sacrifice.

There is powerful evidence

that those responsible for these
ritual murders were the Druids,

and if the Druids
did reach North America,

that they carried
sacrifice with them.

IMBROGNO: The Druids did
sacrifice a certain way.

They would put a noose
around the neck

so that the pressure builds up
in the carotid artery,

then they would slit the throat

so the blood
had pressure to form

a stream in the grooves
of the rock.

NARRATOR:
Could the Table of Sacrifice

be physical evidence that
the Druids came to America

centuries ago

and brought with them,
not only their dark customs,

but perhaps also left
an indelible mark

on New England
and the Hudson Valley?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes

and point out
that Balanced Rock,

the Hudson Valley
stone chambers,

the largest number of UFO
sightings in U.S. history,

and Whitley Strieber's
famous abduction story,

all happened within miles
of each other.

I've had many conversations
with Whitley Strieber,

and he uses the Hudson Valley
UFO sightings to give validation

to his own experiences, which
occurred in the Hudson Valley.

It validates his story.

NARRATOR: Strieber notes that,
according to the ancient Celtic stories,

the Tuatha Dé Danann,
the so-called "Shining Ones"

who descended from the sky,

ultimately went underground

and became the fairy folk
of Irish myth.

In his own extraterrestrial
abduction experience,

the beings he encountered
came from below.

There's a tradition
in Celtic folklore that

the old gods
retreat underground.

I think they came up,
and those people who came up

were real, just as real
as you and me.

So maybe there is something
to the old fairy lore.

Let me put it this way,
and we mustn't forget this,

these fairy folk had nothing
to do with Tinker Bell.

They're really a serious bunch.

NARRATOR: Is there an
extraterrestrial presence

that has existed
in the American Northeast

for more than 2,000 years?

If so, is this what brought
the Druids to this area?

Or might the Druids themselves
have been responsible

for opening the door
to otherworldly visitors?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

in another eerie similarity
between ancient Druid legends

and the testimony
of today's abductees:

The strange phenomenon
of missing time.

NARRATOR: More than 30
years after the publication

of his book Communion,

author Whitley Strieber
remains convinced

of a profound connection

between his abduction and
the mysterious stone chambers

that dot the Hudson Valley.

STRIEBER:
You sit in one of these chambers

that's been carefully aligned
to the earth and to the sky,

and you will communicate
with other levels of reality

to the point that you
will actually bring

physical entities
into your presence.

And you knew then the land
is terribly sacred.

NARRATOR:
Could these structures

and Strieber's
strange encounter,

point to an
extraterrestrial influence

dating back to the age
of the ancient Druids?

Perhaps one final key
can be found in famous tales

of lost and missing time

for which this region
of the world is famous,

and which played a major role
in Communion.

STRIEBER: Like many close
encounter witnesses,

I have missing time
in my experience.

It's not like going to sleep.

It's as if you and I
are sitting here talking,

I sense no change whatsoever,
and then I discover

that I've actually been here
for over an hour

in what seemed to me
like five minutes.

NARRATOR:
Missing time plays a role

in many modern reports
of alien abductions,

but when it comes
to the Hudson Valley,

stories of missing time
go back centuries.

200 years ago,
Washington Irving published

America's most famous tale
of lost time, Rip Van Winkle.

It's the story of
a Dutch American colonist

who takes a nap in the woods
and wakes up 20 years later.

Curiously, it's set in a village

just a few miles away
from Strieber's cabin.

And Irving's
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

takes place in the real village
of North Tarrytown, New York,

just a few miles
from Balanced Rock.

STRIEBER:
I think that Washington Irving

sensed something up there,
clearly.

He was very sensitive to what
was going on in that area,

what is going on to this day
in that area, in my opinion.

THOMPSON: The well-known,
uh, Rip Van Winkle story,

uh, that was put
into literary form,

uh, by Washington Irving is, uh,
kind of a fascinating story

because even though
it seems to be American,

it's really lifted directly out
of the Celtic fairy tradition.

NARRATOR: If the ancient Druids came
to America thousands of years ago,

were they attracted
by an alien presence?

Or is it possible that they used

their vast and mysterious
knowledge,

that allowed them to harness
the electromagnetic energy

of the Earth,
in order to create a vortex

and open a gateway
for extraterrestrials?

And if so, could that gateway
have been left open,

making it possible
for the scores

of otherworldly encounters
that have followed?

In my opinion,
the vortexes and the portals

have been around for many,
many thousands of years.

And with each generation,

we interpret the
supernatural events,

the paranormal phenomena,
that repeatedly occur

in these areas
in different ways.

Sometimes we see them
as demons and devils.

Today, we see them as spacemen,
as places of extraterrestrials.

Tomorrow, they may be
the portals through which

trans-dimensional beings are
making contact with this world.

STRIEBER: I don't think
that we should ever assume

that we have
always been alone here.

There's too much evidence
that that is not true.

It's just that we don't like
to look at that evidence.

NARRATOR: Did the Druids
arrive in America centuries ago

and forever leave
their imprint on the land,

creating an entry point
for beings from other worlds,

other dimensions,
and even other points in time?

Perhaps as we learn more
about the ancient Druids,

we will uncover the secret to
harnessing this power ourselves,

and finally be prepared to meet
our ancient alien ancestors.